The Scotland national football team has appeared eight times at the FIFA World Cup, including five consecutive tournaments from 1974 to 1990. The team has never advanced beyond the first round of the finals competition. They have missed out on progressing to the second round three times on goal difference: in 1974, when Brazil edged them out; in 1978, when the Netherlands progressed; and in 1982, when the Soviets qualified. Background The Scottish Football Association (SFA) is the second oldest in the world; it was founded in 1873, the year after the first official international match was played between Scotland and England at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow. The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition has been held every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II. The World Cup consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final. History 1930s Scotland did not compete in the first three World Cup competitions, in 1930, 1934 and 1938. Because of a dispute with FIFA over "broken-time" payments to players, the SFA, with the football associations of England, Ireland and Wales, withdrew from FIFA in 1928, and did not rejoin as a permanent member until 1946. 1950s The readmission of the Scottish Football Association to FIFA in 1946 meant that Scotland were now eligible to enter the 1950 FIFA World Cup. FIFA advised that places would be awarded to the top two teams in the 1949–50 British Home Championship, but the SFA announced that Scotland would attend the finals only if Scotland won the competition. Scotland won their first two matches, but a 1–0 home defeat by England meant that the Scots finished as runners-up. The SFA stood by this proclamation, despite pleas to the